Keeping the Sunrise
by Baba-sama
Summary: After defeating her father, Raven deals with a possible crush on Robin. Meanwhile, her personalities have their own agendas. And what’s Robin doing? Robin/Raven. Maybe.


**Disclaimer:** Sadly, I do not own the Teen Titans. A girl can hope, though, right?

**AN:** So, I watched 'The End', and when it came to Part III…these mafia-looking plot bunnies cornered me in this alley and asked me if I wanted to go down the hard way or save myself the trouble and take the easy route. I caved, and here's the result. I hope the bunnies – uh, I mean, you – like it.

Plus…after reading 'To Take a Dare' (which I _loved_, by the way, despite it becoming – to me, at least – sort of…hormonal as it went on – but then again they're _Teen_ Titans), I became curious…I mean, what _would_ happen if Raven just let herself be happy? Has she tried it before? If so, what happened? I don't know, maybe these questions were answered in the comics, but I've only watched the show on Cartoon Network, so…I'll just ponder over this in my fanfiction.

I started this thing a long time ago, and have only recently finished it. The next part of this, like all my other stories, may be a long time coming, depending on which fandom my obsession turns to next. So, sorry to all in advance who read this and want more.

**Summary:** After defeating her father, Raven deals with a possible crush on Robin. Meanwhile, her personalities have their own agendas. And what's Robin doing?

**Keeping the Sunrise**

_Chapter 1_

Ever since Raven had joined the Teen Titans, every morning one of two things would usually happen: she would either wake up from nightmares shrouded with oncoming doom, or she would forget about her destiny temporarily as she listened to Cyborg and Beastboy's morning antics (usually about breakfast – mainly what constituted a 'real' one) as they argued outside the dark haven of her room.

She no longer remembered which was worse, but in the grand scheme of things it never really mattered because in the end, her 'father' still waited for the right time for his takeover.

'Takeover', though, was putting it gently.

What he did was…beyond description. He took lives and destroyed worlds, but not out of petty vengeance or a warped sense of justice. If that had been the case she would have understood, or at least not be as bleakly horrified at as the fact that Trigon did such things just because he could. Because he had the_power_ to do it.

But now that they had defeated Trigon, her spine was still tingling. She wasn't afraid of him anymore – he wasn't dead, because her powers were still working, but he had been banished from this world. He wouldn't be coming back. _Ever_. No, that wasn't what she was worried about. Not that she really had much to worry about anymore. Right?

"Raven! Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!" Cyborg called, probably from the kitchen. Raven was still in her bedroom, brooding, but now she pictured Cyborg in his 'Kiss Me I'm The Cook' apron and chef's hat that the Titans had jokingly given him for his birthday. Beastboy's idea, of course.

She smiled. It was a tiny one, but a smile nonetheless. Somehow, she had stopped thinking of them of friends. No. She thought of them as friends, but in the deepest way possible – they were family now, in her mind. And now (she flushed slightly as she recalled her outpouring of pent-up anger to her father in their presence) they knew it too.

She really hoped her impromptu confession wouldn't change things between them. Well, not drastically, at least. She wasn't that big of a fool - especially now - to believe that things never changed. Even now things were changing. She just – she just wanted to stay with them like this for as long as possible.

So what exactly was she scared of? Losing her newfound family? Maybe…or was it something else? Well, she could ponder this later. She could afford to do so now.

Raven stood up, reaching for her hood by force of habit as she walked towards the door to the hall. She paused, and then left it alone. She didn't have anything to hide anymore.

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"Good morning, friend Raven!" Starfire chirped happily, motioning for Raven to sit next to her. Raven nodded, taking a seat next to the energetic Tamaranian. Normally, she'd be a bit put off by Starfire being the perpetually cheerful morning person, but right now she found it endearing.

Well, mostly. It was still a bit annoying.

"Morning, Raven. So what do you want to do today?" Robin asked casually, munching on a piece of toast.

Raven looked surprised for a moment, and rightfully so. Whenever the subject of what they were going do for the day (other than crime-fighting) came up, she usually left it to the other Titans. If they went out, she went with them, but usually sat on the sidelines, reading a book or meditating.

"Why ask me? What's the occasion?" The other Titans looked at her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it probably should have been, considering the near-annihilation of Earth - not to mention the surrounding universe.

"Are you kidding me? We beat the big bad Trigon!" Beastboy shouted, flexing his biceps. Starfire giggled at him, while Raven merely rolled her eyes.

"Did you manage to forget that _I_ was the one who actually defeated him?" Raven asked, to which Beastboy's biceps sagged down to the floor. "Besides, I thought we celebrated yesterday."

"Rae, yesterday while you and Robin were playing cat and mouse the rest of us were fighting our clones from hell." Cyborg winced, rubbing a sore spot on his neck.

"Which explains why ten minutes into the party you guys conked out." Raven frowned.

Beastboy perked up again. "But now we're rested up and ready to really party!"

"If you want to," Robin said. She looked at him, then at Beastboy, Cyborg, and Starfire, who had huge puppy-dog looks planted on their faces.

"Sure." Everyone else cheered, but Robin just smiled.

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The whole day was odd, but in a good way. Everything seemed to shine with more life. The grass looked greener, the sky looked bluer – even the birds flying around seemed much livelier today than they had ever been before.

Then again, if the prevention of the destruction of the world wasn't a cause for celebration, what _was_?

For their private little victory celebration, Raven had chosen to just have a picnic in the park, which the rest of the Titans had enthusiastically agreed to. Well, mostly. Robin had, again, just smiled and nodded.

Which did, in fact, put Raven a little off.

Okay, so Robin wasn't exactly as exuberant as, say, Starfire. But then again, nearly everyone else seemed brooding and dark in comparison to Tamaranian, who was the epitome of everything cheerful and good-hearted in the universe.

And it wasn't exactly the smile that was so off-putting…in fact, the smile itself wasn't really a surprise. It was just…the _kind_ of smile it was, the message it sent.

And it _was_ a message. Limited though her experience was in the matter of social interactions, she knew when someone was telling her something. She just didn't know how to_decipher_ it.

After she'd pronounced that she wanted to go on a picnic in the park, he'd looked in her eyes (or she assumed so, because who knew with the mask permanently attached to his face), or at least his face was pointed in her direction, and gave her a slow, easy smile. She'd smiled back, and then the weird thing happened – he slightly cocked his head to one side and let the corners of his mouth tilt upward still, creating something that was almost a smirk, but not quite.

She'd turned it over in her head a few times, and still couldn't come up with any answers. And after that one odd not-quite-a-smirk smirk, Robin had done nothing out of the ordinary, or at least nothing that would get a rise out of her suspicious nature. Raven shifted on top of the picnic blanket she was sitting on and frowned.

Maybe she was just thinking too much. It probably didn't mean anything, and even if it did, Robin was her _teammate_ and more – he was part of the surrogate family she had, without her realizing it until just recently, formed here on Earth. He would do nothing to harm her, of that much she was sure.

With the matter now firmly settled in her head, her attention shifted to Starfire, who was eagerly presenting to her a chain of daisies she had made into a necklace, and then to Cyborg, who was grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and asked if she wanted one.

And unbeknownst to the rest of the Titans, Robin turned back to his game of Frisbee with Beastboy, who in his dog shape had been distracted by a passing dragonfly, and smiled.

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**AN (again):** Well, there you have it, folks. This story, like my others, hasn't been checked over by anyone other than me, so any errors in it are entirely my fault, and I'd love you forever and a day if you could point any out to me.

There was another version of this first chapter, but I felt it was…not weird, but it didn't feel right as a first chapter, so instead I wrote what you have just read. That chapter, though, may show up in later chapters of this story, because I loved it when I wrote it and I still love it now. It is very much relevant to the story, and should be a delight to read. –smiles-

Unfortunately, like I've said, the next part is not likely to come out for, like, a billion years, depending on the fickle part of my brain that deals with my obsessions with fandoms…


End file.
